Since a lot of people seem to be adopting sous-vide cooking at home with Sous Vide Supreme I’m going to post some easy recipes for the kitchen Indiana Jones out there. Sous-vide cooking is a method that was developed in France in the 1970’s but that has gone mainstream only in recent years. I think where sous-vide excels is at maintaining the integrity of ingredients in a way that was once impossible, and that’s achieved by cooking food in air-vacuumed bags for an extended period of time at relatively low but tightly controlled temperatures.

Octopus is a notoriously tricky ingredient, one wrong step can lead you to chew on a cephalopod chewing gum – and it’s just as bad as it sounds. When you get it right though, it’s pure bliss. Sous-vide is a great technique to use on octopus as it produces perfectly tender tentacles without the hassle. You can then finish them up on the grill for a little bit of char just before serving. Get ready for some serious octo-goodness, my friends.

The octopus for this dish was blanched first, then vacuumed-sealed and cooked for 4 hours at 180’F (85’C). Grilled octopus served with corona beans is a classic preparation in Mediterranean cooking which I paired with crispy chorizo, black olives and a lively aged Sherry vinaigrette spiked with smoked paprika. I could eat this everyday. Muy delicioso!

For the sous-vide octopus:

Place 8 cups of water and the carrot, onion, celery, bay leaves, parsley stems and black peppercorn in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes. Add the white wine vinegar and keep at a simmer. Wash the octopus in plenty of cold water and remove the tentacles with a sharp knife. Blanch the octopus for about 45 seconds and remove from the poaching and into an ice bath to cool rapidly. Drain. Cool the poaching liquid.

Place the octopus in two separate sous-vide bags. Add a few tablespoons of the poaching liquid to the bags and vacuum-seal on high.

Place the bags in the sous-vide machine for 4 hours at 185’F (85’C). Cool in an ice bath.

Open the bags, discard the liquid and the bags. Remove the slimy membrane. Place the octopus in a new bag with olive oil and seal again. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Grill before serving.

For the corona beans, chorizo and sherry-smoked paprika vinaigrette:

Make a vinaigrette with the sherry vinegar, garlic, shallot, anchovy, smoked paprika and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

In a sautee pan over medium heat crisp up the chorizo in a little olive oil. Drain on paper towel.

In a small bowl, toss the corona beans, the olives, parsley and chorizo with some of the vinaigrette. Check seasoning. Serve with the grilled octopus and some more vinaigrette drizzle on top. Sprinkle with smoked paprika.

First you had me thinking about the Delonghi ice cream maker and now with this, I will be wondering about the sous vide machine for a long time…. Very elegant!

Bunkycooks

We are working with the sous vide method right now. In fact, there are short ribs circulating for the next few days in our kitchen. As always, I love your dishes and photos. Beautiful.

http://willtravelforfood.com mayssam

Beautiful as usual! and no thank you for trying to rid the world of those pesky cephalopod chewing gums!

http://www.mirauncut.com Mirauncut

That looks amazing. Love! xx Mira

Anonymous

Perfect! That leaves me just enough time to show up at your house for dinner.

Anonymous

Just ask me if you don’t know how to spend your money.

Anonymous

First was the octo-gum, and then came the octo-mom.

http://www.katherinemartinelli.com Katherine Martinelli

I’m not quite at sous vide at home yet, but I do enjoy reading about it. God your photos are fantastic!! This octopus looks amazing. Like too many home cooks and food bloggers I’ve never cooked octopus at home! Need to get on that.

Sigrid

This is perfect timing. I was just about to order one of those vacuuming thingies (what’s the correct name? vacuumizer?). Do you have any recommendations that don’t break the bank but don’t break after one week, either?

Oh, and: Love your blog and your pictures and the way you make haute-cuisinish recipes sound as if even I could master them.

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella

Great idea using sous vide for octopus!

http://www.ouichefnetwork.com Oui, Chef

Never been a huge fan of octo because of its chew factor, maybe Santa will be extra nice to me this year and bring me a sous-vide machine. Oh the fun I could have with one of those. Do you use a commercial model, or one made for a home kitchen?

Anonymous

I use a home model version both at work and at home. I don’t use it to cook large quantities of food so it works well for me. Hope Santa is good to you!

Anonymous

Thank you for the kind words, Sigrid. You should check out Sous-Vide Supreme http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/default.aspx?RD=1 I think they have the best options for sous-vide cooking at home.

Anonymous

Thank you, Katherine

http://mybeautifuldisasters.wordpress.com/ Casey

Wow, this looks so cool! I love octopus, unfortunately I’m stuck in the Midwest..not so easy to find octo around here

Sigrid

Thanks, but I could never get my husband to make room in “his” kitchen for another big appliance. (I’m glad I could convince him that we absolutely needed an icecream-maker.)

I plan to start small and place the vacuumized items in a big pot of hot water fitted with a thermometer. The first try already turned out promising. But sucking the air out of the plastic bags was a bit of a nuisance. That’s why I’m allowed to buy a vacuumizer.The Sous-Vide Supreme will follow when I win the lottery and can buy us a bigger kitchen …

Anonymous

haha.. at least you got an ice cream maker!

It’s called a vacuum-sealer and that website sells those too. Here’s a link.. http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/department.aspx?DeptId=4&

http://www.foodgal.com Carolyn Jung

Octopus is tricky to cook, just like you said. But boy, when it is done with a sure hand, it’s sublime. My husband has been hankering for a sous vide machine. You’ve just given him more fodder for convincing me to buy one. LOL

http://profiles.google.com/cakebrain Cake Brain

I love octopus…done well. It looks as if you know what you’re doing very well! You have managed to make it look so beautiful…to the point that I might not want to eat it because it’s so pretty. But my stomach would win out over my brain. A sous vide machine sounds like pure luxury! I actually want a steam oven first as I think I would use it a lot!

haha.. just look at it this way, in a few years most people will have a sous-vide machine at home. Go for it!

http://www.siliconvalleysousvide.blogspot.com SiliconValleySousVide

Fantastic picture! I did sous vide octopus at 185F for 5 hours. Came out wonderful as well. It has such a great visual. I’m going to try your recipe this weekend! Thanks!

http://www.domino-design.nl Andrew

wow this looks really good, I ‘ve got water running through my mouth…

http://www.mattikaarts.com/blog Matt

Incredibly stunning. Some of the most fantastic food I have ever seen. LOVE octopus, and what great flavors to pair with it. Stunning photos as usual mate.

http://convergenyc.wordpress.com/ Brent Carter

Would there be any benefit to cooking the octopus really low and slow like you would a short rib (many hours at 130)? Octopus has alot of collagen right and that’s what usually makes things so garsh darn rubbery right?

RED

Love doing Octo via SV and I love your recipe. Could you tell me what type of olives you used in this recipe

kevin cousin

zen, thanks for the passion and great techniques … i’ve been cooking my octo at just under 200 F ( 93.3 C) in an olive oil poach for 2 hours…. and it comes out good, but i use about a gallon of olive oil each time…. this method makes it flawless with limited waste of product…. u da man!!! : ))

James G

Just made this and it looks great, but the little suction cups came off the tentacles when the octopus was cooked and I removed the slimy membrane. What did I do wrong?